The Pupil Premium is funding provided to schools that is in addition to the funding based on factors such as pupil numbers. It is allocated according to the number of pupils on roll who are eligible for free school meals (FSM), an allocation for each pupil who has been "Looked After" (in the care of the local authority) for 6 months or more and for children from families with parents in the Armed Forces. Funding also includes pupils who have been eligible for free school meals within the past 6 years. Pupil Premium funding is given to schools so that they can support their disadvantaged pupils and reduce the attainment gap between them and their peers.

Schools can decide how the Pupil Premium is spent, since they are able to decide what additional provision or support should be made for the individual children in their schools. All schools are accountable for how they have used the additional funding to support children from low-income families. This information must be published on the school website. This section sets out to show you how our pupil premium funding was used last year, the difference it has made to outcomes, and an outline of how we intend to use it this year and in future plans.

We can assure parents and carers that all matters regarding who is entitled to extra support and how and when we use funding, which derives from the pupil premium, are treated with discretion and in confidence. We can also assure all parents and carers that we do not assume that being entitled to free school meals means a child will be academically less able or be more likely to have special educational needs. It may mean that a child will have more restricted access to additional opportunities such as music tuition or coaching, excursions and holidays, concerts and performances, equipment, books and IT. Financial difficulty may mean that a child (or family) has lower aspirations or self-esteem and for example, may not see themselves at university or following a pathway to one of the professions. It may not.

We use our pupil premium, along with all of our financial and human resources to do all we can to ensure that children at our school have equality of access to the wide and rich range of opportunities that we offer and see themselves as able to learn, achieve, aspire and excel. We use it to narrow the gap between children with and without advantages.

Please see below our allocations and spends, outcomes achieved and current strategy for addressing disadvantage.